Fly Without Rhythm
Preceded By: Season Fifteen, Season Premiere: Post Talnec's Disjunction Syndrome Followed By: Season Fifteen, Episode Three: The Mirror of Ecived Tolp Summary : In the morning, Leilah checks Einsof with Analyze Dweomer. He is an arcane archer, a bit richer than the party would expect. He doesn't appear to be enchanted. The party agrees he can stay for now. : Leilah casts Discern Location on the other Leilah. She is in Bisau. : The cloud cover is beginning to dissolve naturally, leaving the Thought exposed. The ship descends to fly closer to the ground. It is noticeably warmer down here. : Since she wants to go to the "party", the party asks the Girl With No Name to hold the compass and show them which way to go. It points about fifteen degrees east of Leilah's reading, towards the T'Nari Oasis. Leilah points the Thought at the oasis, and the party pools their knowledge about the location. The T'Nari Oasis has a network of underground tunnels and a small settlement nearby. Around this time of year there is also a major event, the "Fire Burn Festival", held there. With a spyglass, No Name is able to see the tents and campsites of the festival. The camp seems strangely deserted, however -- she sees no people outside. : The Thought ascends. Leilah calls her father for advice. He says that Anahita Benin and Anahita Nubia are both all right, but he doesn't seem to remember recent events. Leilah is convinced he's been compromised. He's south-east of East Moreland, where she'd lied and claimed to be. Her attempts to scry on him fail. : A couple of people are now visible outside the tents. They appear to be on drugs (probably sarasin), but at least they're not demons. One of them appears to be a festival greeter, and he waves up at the Thought. : Leilah uses her divination spells to decipher the strange call and learn more about the festival. Her father is not lying, nor is he under threat. The greeter is who he appears to be, and if he knew the party's identities, he would still be friendly. The Fire Burn Festival has had surprisingly low attendance recently, probably because of the demons eating everyone who tries to get there. The tunnels were recently occupied by living inhabitants, and they are not fortified. No Name's compass reading is not within 800 miles of the current location, and saving the world is not her primary goal. : The party decides to land and talk to the festival organizers. The Thought lands and the waving man comes up to meet them. They have found the parking lot, and he is a greeter, but he's so high it's hard to get any useful information out of him. Someone (?) gives him some good sarasin to ensure the party's welcome. : He leads the party into a tent which covers the entrance to one of the tunnels. Inside the tunnel are some of the festival organizers. They are older and less stoned. The organizers explain the religious significance of the festival. They are a dragon cult. (Ashra carefully stays outside and avoids hearing so she won't be obligated to kill them.) They worship the Dog of the Desert, and every year new worshipers go out into the desert to search for the dragon. If it doesn't eat them, they are blessed. The tunnels are a sacred site, and the festival grounds were built atop them. This cult is not directly related to Acromonius Carthigan's dragon cult, but they have interacted with them. : Galland and Ashra both want to kill this dragon for separate religious reasons, so the party decides to go ahead and search for it. They ask the festival organizers where to search for the Dog, then take their leave. : They are in luck: as the party approaches the holy site, they see a blue dragon waiting for them. The standard buff routine is graced by an explosion of twos. Leaves and branches surround Ashra, and she believes her god is testing her (which, since she's fighting a dragon, is true). Leilah's boots become artifacts of Tamiko, Leilah's chicken believes Leilah to be its familiar, her ears ring when someone talks about her, and she believes her touch can kill disease (which is also technically true). Einsof has inert ioun stones orbiting his head. Finally the party's buffs are up. Icania talks about the "cleric of a god I've never seen" and Leilah's ears ring. : No Name takes the first shot at the dragon. The party drops out of the Thought and sends it off on autopilot for its protection. They land into three delayed blast fireballs. Leilah tries to Dimensional Anchor the dragon, but a two instead makes her circulatory system appear to be outside her body. Faust makes a Prismatic Wall and No Name runs behind it for cover. Galland becomes invisible when he closes his eyes. : Ashra pulls out her unholy symbol, runs up, and brandishes it, announcing her dragonslaying credentials. This gets the dragon's attention. It casts Horrid Wilting. : Icania runs up and kills the dragon with his axe, suddenly ending the combat. : Ashra offers to baptize him into the Church of Ethan, and he agrees. She bathes him in dragon blood, offers up some more dragon bits, and welcomes him into the church. Galland cuts off one of the dragon's horns as a sacrifice to Tamiko. Rostan now believes Galland owes him a great deal of money, and Galland will wake every morning with his clothes in the nearest tree (if he didn't already). : Near the dragon corpse, the party notices a staircase down. It leads into a room with loot and a door; Leilah does not want the party going further without preparation. : Mr. R goes to look for Cicero and finds a note (addressed to Ashra) where Cicero takes his leave (and says that he took Rostan with him). He brings this to Ashra and also takes his leave, since he was really only hanging around because Cicero. The party is suddenly Vecnaistless. Category:Episodes Category:Season Fifteen Episodes